Anchor of My Dreams

February 5, 2011

We’re on our new anchor for the first time. When we started telling everyone that we were leaving this year for our cruise the sailors around us came out of the woodwork with offers of help to make things happen.  Over the past few weeks we’ve purchased and installed our Rocna 33, our Lewmar V3 Windlass, and 300 feet of G40 HT 5/16″ chain. We bought our anchor used, as a return to the store, for about a third of the retail price.  The windlass and chain were also purchased at excellent prices. Still, for the cost of all of this ground tackle we could have stayed in a marina for a long long time.  But staying in a marina is not our plan.

We dropped the hook this afternoon in Paradise Cove in Tiburon.  Shortly after we got settled Ruby and Miles both said something along the lines, “I want to anchor out every day.” And so do we. Having a reliable anchor was our top priority in outfitting our boat since it will both keep our home where we put it and be our insurance policy.  When we travel to Mexico this fall and explore the South Pacific  the following spring and summer everything we own will depend on our anchor every day (well, there will be a few overnights and then a few weeks of overnights in there that we won’t stop moving at all).  Our anchor gives us the freedom to explore the world with a certain amount of self sufficiency.

Since it’s only our first night and we’re in a well protected cove with little current or wind and no swell other than the wake of the ferry boats, this is certainly not my review of the holding power of our Rocna.  I think I’m going to love it though.  These anchors have an incredible reputation in the sailing world, even just among my friends:

Oh how I want a Rocna….

AbsoLUTEly! I ♥ my Rocna!

oh yeah.

I am in green with envy mode.

you’ll be psyched – miscalculated when anchoring today, and the rocna dug in like a champ with 2:1 – pretty impressive…

Nothing like a bright, shiny new anchor to make the ♥ glad.

I’ve wanted an anchor tattoo for years, but I’ve always said that I wouldn’t get it until I had a good story first.  In years past sailors might have gotten an anchor tattoo after crossing an ocean. It is often symbolic of well grounded hope and a well spent life. I’m not sure when or if the tattoo will come but I already feel the hope and excitement of a well spent life.

7 comments

  1. Comment by Cidnie

    Cidnie February 6, 2011 at 7:22 am

    Your blog does not like my comments for some reason. Anyway, I really want a Rocna and I am hoping like crazy to score as sweet a deal as you did!

    • Comment by Tucker Bradford

      Tucker Bradford February 6, 2011 at 10:19 am

      Cidnie, you aren’t the first to complain. What happened? Seems like it worked in the end.

  2. Comment by Cidnie

    Cidnie February 8, 2011 at 4:52 am

    It did it again! Your site likes to tell me I am not a member of Ceol Mor after I sign in and it deletes my comment. I am only able to post a comment through perserverance and this is frustrating for me as well as you because what use is it to have a shiny new anchor if people can’t go “oooh! Nice tackle you have there!”?

    • Comment by Tucker Bradford

      Tucker Bradford February 9, 2011 at 12:52 pm

      Shoot Cidnie,
      It looks as if your problem is happening over at blogspot.com (when you go there authenticate). Since that’s not handled by my server, I can’t quite figure out what is going wrong. Is it possible that the email address you are typing in here isn’t the same as the one that you use to update http://theceolmors.blogspot.com/?

      Honestly I didn’t even know that my wordpress blog was smart enough to check that. I’ve always just used my own blog and it never asked me to prove that I owned forgeover.com, or tuckerbradford.com, or svconivia.com. I would love to get to the bottom of this though, keep me posted.

  3. Comment by Jenny Halteman

    Jenny Halteman February 12, 2011 at 6:39 pm

    Just discovered your blog last night. We love our rocna as well! We have not gotten to use it as often as we had hoped, but it has always been totally reliable.

  4. Pingback: Nautical Craftiness aboard Convivia

  5. Comment by Diane

    Diane December 20, 2013 at 2:42 pm

    I would enjoy subscribing to your site. The chapters of your travel adventures are fascinating, and I would enjoy reading more.

    Thanks, Diane

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